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Journal for Quality and Participation Author Guidelines

The Journal for Quality and Participation is a peer-reviewed publication. Articles published in this journal must address issues related to the human-side of quality. Our editorial review team is comprised of a cross-section of distinguished practitioners with backgrounds in quality management, techniques, and tools; human resource management; employee involvement, facilitation, and coaching; leadership theories and practices; the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award system for performance excellence, and the ISO 9000 series of standards, and factors impacting the overall impact of quality principles and tools, such as social responsibility and risk management.

We publish articles that have not been published previously and currently are not under consideration for publication elsewhere. If an author has a previously published article that he/she believes is worth considering for publication after revision, he/she should include information on its history, including a copy of the original article, its publisher, and the name, volume, and issue in which it appeared. A letter granting permission to reprint or revise the article from the original publisher also must accompany the article submission.

Occasionally, we also approach an author directly and ask him/her to submit an article on a specific topic for a specific issue. These commissioned articles do not go through our standard peer-review process. Instead, each is assigned to a member of the editorial team for guidance through the publication process.

General-Interest Articles

Articles generally should range between 1,500 and 2,500 words and can include up to three charts, tables, diagrams, or other illustrations. Every general interest article published in The Journal for Quality and Participation also appears in the online version provided on ASQ’s website.

Case Studies

Generally, a case study also appears in many of the issues. Case studies need to describe the exact issue or project and include detailed information on the process used, what worked and didn’t work in that process, and the results obtained. Case studies should contain between 2,000 and 2,500 words. Consultants must submit written permission from the organization described in the case study along with the article.

Departments

Each issue of The Journal for Quality and Participation currently features a variety of departments. Some are written by regular columnists, and others are submitted by authors and go through the peer-review process. Articles for most departments should be limited to 1,500 words.

We log all article submissions into a database and delete all references to the author(s). These “blinded” versions then go to the editorial review team for comments and recommendations. There are three possible outcomes of this review:

Accept with standard editorial revisions. In this case, the content of the article is accepted without requiring any changes by the author. As always, however, we reserve the right to edit the article for length and style.

Accept with author revisions.Articles in this category are suitable for publication but first require changes by the author. We provide specific feedback from our reviewers to guide the revision process. We also assign a tentative publication date, assuming the author will submit the revised article by the deadline.

Decline to publish. Occasionally authors submit articles that do not fit our editorial scope or reader preferences. In these situations, we may provide the author with suggestions for modifying the article to make it more appropriate to our publication, but we do not assign a tentative publication date. However, some articles in this category may be rejected without suggestions because they do not meet our topical focus or other requirements.

Authors will receive the preliminarily edited version of their articles, which includes revisions for technical content, grammar, sentence structure, and other language-related changes. Authors are expected to follow the instructions for reviewing and approving these versions of their articles, and the typical expected turn-around time is one business week. Please note that all articles go through a final pre-publication edit that incorporates revisions from the authors and final style-related corrections. That version of the article is not returned to the authors for a second approval. We ask you to trust that we have your best interests, as well as our readers’ interests, in mind.

Articles that appear to be advertising, are too academic, or don’t fit the general topics addressed by The Journal for Quality and Participation may be rejected without receiving peer reviews. Our reviewers and readers usually view articles that include reference to an author’s proprietary products or methods as advertising. Although we encourage authors to share their personally developed theories and application approaches, we ask that they refrain from using our publication as a marketing tool. Please take great care when including information of this nature in your article.

Furthermore, all articles must be provided in proper American English; articles that need extensive language editing may be rejected with the suggestion that a professional editor be engaged to revise the article before it is resubmitted. If the authors decide to pursue this option, the revised article needs to be resubmitted with a cover message that explains the process that was used to improve the language of the original article.

If the article cites cost savings, cost avoidance, or cost-benefit ratios, or provides the results of statistical evaluations, include an explanation of the method of calculation, along with any underlying assumptions and/or analysis considerations.

Our staff does not have the means to compile references or verify usage permissions. It is, therefore, important for authors to provide all that information with their articles, including written letters of authorization when appropriate. Plagiarism is a rapidly growing crime—particularly due to the use of information from the Internet. Please help us to maintain professional integrity by investing the time necessary to verify sources and to obtain and document all necessary permissions. Information on our requirements for documenting references, along with specific examples, is included at the end of these guidelines.

We accept only electronic submissions in Microsoft® Word® format. Send electronic copies of articles to debhopen@nventure.com. Include all of your contact information in a cover letter or your email message. Failure to meet this requirement may result in the immediate return of your submission.

Tables should be included at the end of the article and must be in Microsoft Word. Each table must be referenced in the article and labeled, such as “Table 1: Team Members’ Project Roles.” Do not embed .jpg, .tif, .gif, or tables in other similar formats in your article. Please do not insert indicators for where you would like your table to be placed in the final article; that determination is part of our layout process.

Drawings and other illustrations should be sent in separate Microsoft PowerPoint® or Microsoft Word files; each item should be included in a separate file. All drawings and other illustrations must be referenced in the article, and must be labeled, such as “Figure 1: Pareto Analysis of Key Cost Drivers.” Please do not use other software to generate your drawings or illustrations. Also, please do not embed .jpg, .tif, .gif, or drawings or illustrations in other similar formats in your article. Please do not insert indicators for where you would like your drawings or illustrations to be placed in the final article; that determination is part of our layout process.

Please complete the author biography worksheet included with these author guidelines, following its exact format. Keep in mind that our bios are intended to be 50 words or less in general, and they include only the information preferred by our readers. We reserve the right to edit all biographies.

Authors must sign a form affirming their work is original and is not an infringement of an existing copyright. Additionally, we ask authors to transfer copyright to ASQ. The copyright transfer allows the author to reproduce his/her article in specific ways, provided the author requests permission from ASQ and credits the copyright to ASQ. The transfer also allows ASQ to reproduce the work in other publications, on its website, etc.

If authors use materials from other works in their articles (other than standard references), they must obtain written permission from the copyright owner (usually the publisher) to reprint each item of borrowed material. This includes any illustrations, tables, or substantial extracts (direct quotations) outside the realm of fair use. Submit these permission letters with the article. Articles cannot be published in JQP until copies of all permission letters are received.

Please return a scan of the completed copyright release form along with the article and the author biography worksheet. Articles will not be distributed for peer-review unless all three of these items are included.

One of the most common errors we’ve observed with submitted articles is improper referencing. Two problems occur most frequently: information included without proper attribution in the references and formatting that does not meet our style requirements. The information in this section is intended to ensure your references adhere to our standards.

The Journal for Quality and Participation uses its own reference style. All references should be numbered in the body of the text and a matching number should appear in the references section at the end of the article. Please do not use Microsoft Word endnotes or footnotes; we are unable to work with them and will return articles automatically for revision (without peer review) if these are present. Also, please do not include citations in the body of the text.

Examples of the most common types of citations/references are shown on the next page in the format required for our publication.

Watch your punctuation; we use commas to separate segments of the reference information, not periods.

Author’s names always appear with the first name followed by the last name.

Italicize the names of books, magazines, newsletters, and journals.

Use double quote marks around the names of magazine, newsletter, and journal articles and conference proceedings’ titles. Remember that punctuation marks fall inside the quotation marks in almost every case.

It’s not necessary to include the city with the publisher’s name.

When inserting the reference numbers in the body of the text, use the “superscript” function in Microsoft Word. Do not include a period behind the reference number or a space before or after the reference number, as shown below:
Correct: Text in body of the article¹
Incorrect:Text in body of the article¹.
Incorrect:Text in body of the article ¹

When inserting the reference number in front of the reference information in the list at the end of the article, use the standard font size and format. Do include a period behind the reference number and a space after the period, as shown below:
Correct: 1. Reference information
Incorrect: 1Reference information
Incorrect: 1.Reference information
Incorrect: 1. Reference information

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